"Detroit Falls"

self-released

Artists:

More than three years after his untimely death, J Dilla remains as relevant as ever. A testament to his vision and groundbreaking style, more and more left-field hip-hop and techno producers are searching for the hidden code in his soul-spliced instrumentals and hoping to spin them in new directions. Unlike similarly minded knob twiddlers Flying Lotus and Bullion-- whose fallen-off beats and intricate textures rely on a certain degree of obfuscation-- newcomer Pariah represents the more accessible side of Jay Dee. On "Detroit Falls", one of just a few tracks available from the unsigned Londoner, Pariah (nĂŠ Arthur Cayzer) folds a vintage R&B sample into a pendulous dubstep arrangement and builds a sticky refrain from manipulated low-end synths and the leftover vocal fragments. Everything falls into place: the divergent genres fuse together without seams, and the earthly vocals give the track warmth, a quality not often attributed to dubstep. Because of his very limited output, it's impossible to say whether Pariah has more killer cuts up his sleeve or if "Detroit Falls" was just a happy accident, but for now he's sounding promising.